Field
The present application is related generally to tools or devices for transferring small amount of viscous fluids, and more particularly to apparatus for transferring and dispensing essential oils and waxes.
Description of Related Art
Essential oils and waxes are used in many applications from medicinal applications like aroma therapy to air fresheners. Waxes are merely high molecular weight oils that solidify at room temperature. Many devices (or applicators or tools) on the market are designed to transfer these oils and waxes (referred to hereafter as “material” or “materials”) from their containers to a heated surface of a vaporizing device for vaporization. Most of the currently available tools are minor variations from laboratory spatulas and dental tools, for example, dental picks. There are a number of problems with the current tools, including:    1) Too little material being transferred per application so that multiple applications have to be used to transfer a certain amount of material;    2) Too much redeposition of material, meaning that, as the material is vaporized from the tip of the tool or from the heated surface, the vapor tends to condense or redeposit material on the cooler parts of the tool, which not only makes a bit of mess but also may waste material;    3) Lack of isolation from the surroundings, so that the tool makes a mess and wastes material by inadvertently depositing it on whatever surface the tool is placed on (for example, when the tool is placed on a table, unused material or redeposited material on the tip and/or sides of the tool can easily touch the table surface, thereby transferring material to the table surface, resulting in wasted material);    4) Difficult to efficiently move material from the applicator tool to the vaporizing device, which results in a waste of time and material, as well as potentially damaging the vaporizing device (for example, dental pick like tools can easily damage the expensive heating coils that heat and vaporize the transferred material), and    5) Limited ability to store material in the tool for multiple applications or to meter out the material in a known fashion.